The first and most obvious step in devising an application
deployment strategy is to decide what applications your users need.
This is an essential part of the workstation configuration planning
that you perform in the early stages of the Windows 7 deployment
project. The primary factor that differentiates one workstation
configuration from another is the set of applications the computer has
to run. The applications dictate what hardware goes into the computer,
what operating system elements you must install, and what security
access the computer’s users require. If you design your workstation
configurations without factoring in application requirements, you are
likely to find yourself doing a lot of computer upgrading and
retrofitting later.
Identifying User Requirements
Workstation configurations are based on the tasks that the
computer users need to accomplish, and those tasks are made possible
by the applications running on the computers. Early in the planning
process, you should make a list of the tasks your users perform
regularly and begin evaluating applications that are capable of
performing these tasks.
Each type of user you are addressing in your
deployment project probably has a different set of required tasks.
However, this does not mean that you must create a separate
workstation configuration and a separate set of applications for
each user type. There are two main reasons why this is so:
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Workstation configuration
management. The more workstation configurations you decide to
create, the more complicated your workstation deployment and
maintenance process becomes. By creating configurations that
can satisfy the needs of several user types, you streamline
the deployment process.
-
Application
bundling. It is often more economical to purchase a suite of
applications than to buy individual copies of each application
you need. For example, many organizations install an office
suite on all of their workstations, even though few if any of
their users regularly need all of the applications contained
in the suite.
When you have created the initial workstation configurations
you plan to deploy, you can compile a list of tasks that each
workstation is expected to perform and begin evaluating applications
that can perform these tasks. As part of your evaluation process,
you of course consider the tasks that each application is capable of
performing, but you should also consider the following additional
elements:
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Deployment
versatility. Is it possible to deploy the application in various
ways? You can install it locally on each workstation, but can
you run it from a server? Can you package the application for
automated deployment? Can you deploy it using Remote Desktop
Services? Can you deploy it virtually using App-V? If you have not yet settled on
an application deployment strategy for your workstations,
applications with this type of versatility can provide you
with valuable options.
-
Compatibility. Is the application capable of running on Windows 7? Are
there any known compatibility problems with any of the
workstation’s other hardware and software components?
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Interoperability. Are the document files the application produces
compatible with the other applications that will run on the
workstation?
-
Dependencies. Does the application require any other applications,
operating system updates, hardware, or software components to
run?
-
Bundling. Is the application available with additional
capabilities that could be useful to your users? Is there a
choice between a stand-alone version of the application or one
bundled with a suite?
-
Economy. What is the cost of the application? Are there discounts
available for multiple licenses or site licensing?
Determining Application Requirements
Virtually all application developers publish the basic
system requirements for their products. However, to fully realize
the ramifications of adopting a particular application, you must
consider all of the other hardware and software components in your
workstations.
For example, a developer might recommend that you install a
particular application on a computer with one gigabyte of memory,
but this recommendation does not account for the various operating
system features that you might have enabled on the computer, nor
does it account for other applications that the computer might be
running at the same time. For example, the manufacturer of an office
suite might recommend one gigabyte of memory, but does that mean
that one gig is enough to run the word processor, the spreadsheet,
and the presentation graphics program all at the same time, or just
one of those three?
Manufacturer recommendations also tend not to distinguish
between an application that is running comfortably and one that is
barely functional. The only way to be sure that an application can
run well on a particular workstation configuration is to test it
under as realistic conditions as possible, and that means building a
test workstation with all of the applications a particular user type
needs and running it as that type of user would.
When studying the hardware requirements for the applications
you are evaluating, consider the following elements:
-
Memory. Always the most important hardware specification, as
far as performance is concerned, a workstation configuration
should call for sufficient memory to run all of the
applications the user typically has open, with
representative document files loaded as well.
-
Processor. Processor speed can have a lesser, though still
palpable, effect on performance than memory. Certain
specialized applications can realize a greater benefit from
a faster processor, but in most cases, the processor
requirements for Windows 7 are sufficient for most
applications.
-
Graphics. In a typical business setting, the standard graphics
adapter integrated into most workstation motherboards is
sufficient to run most applications. However, there are
graphic-intensive applications, such as image and video
editing programs, that can benefit from a more specialized
graphics adapter.
-
Storage. Many enterprises use network servers for their primary
storage, and they configure workstations to store even their
user profile data there. However, applications installed
locally still require some storage space for their program
files and often need additional space for temporary files as
well. In most cases, the storage supplied in the average
computer is sufficient for a basic workstation
configuration. However, if the users routinely work with
extremely large files, additional local storage space might
be warranted.
-
Network. For most commercially marketed applications, network
speed is not a stated requirement. However, in an enterprise
workstation deployment, running applications from a server
drive is sometimes an option, and the speed of the network
can affect the application’s performance.
Apart from the hardware, the other application
requirements you might have to consider are software prerequisites
on the workstation. Some applications require specific versions of
the Microsoft .NET Framework, and some Web-based applications
require specific versions of Windows Internet Explorer.
Auditing Clients for Application Requirements
After you have finalized your workstation configurations,
including the applications you intend to deploy and their
requirements, you must make certain that your workstations meet
those requirements. For a new computer deployment, this is a matter
of purchasing appropriate hardware and properly configuring the
operating system installation. However, when deploying Windows 7 to
existing workstations, you must ensure that they all have the
hardware and software necessary to run the applications you intend
to deploy on them.
If you have Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager (SCCM) 2007 on your network, you can use that to
gather hardware inventory information from your workstations.
Workstations with the SCCM client installed have a Hardware
Inventory Client Agent and Software Inventory Client Agent that
report extensive information back to the SCCM server. Administrators
can then view the inventory information using the Resource Explorer
application, as shown in Figure 1.
SCCM also enables administrators to generate reports
based on specific hardware and software contents. The Asset
Intelligence tool can provide detailed reports of critical
workstation elements pertinent to software distribution, such as
memory installed and available disk space, as shown in Figure 2.
For enterprises that do not use SCCM 2007, the Microsoft
Assessment And Planning Toolkit 5.0 provides a more limited hardware
inventory solution, but it has the benefits of requiring no client
agent and of being a free download.
